Recommended Diet for Active and Healthy Kids

Creating healthy eating habits in children is very important, and the sooner your start, the easier will be for the children to adopt these habits. There is another this though, that you should keep in mind when teaching your kids new habits that are to provide them with an opportunity to lead a healthy lifestyle – you have to practice what you preach. If you skip meals, and eat standing beside the table, don’t expect your kid to sit at the dinning table and having all three meals. Until you are ‘equal’ with your kid and you are eating the same foods, you will not be able to get through to it, and it will probably fail to create healthy habits.

What Your Kids’ Diet Should Consist of?

In simplest words, a recommended diet for active and healthy kids should consist of many diverse foods. They should have an abundance of the most different fruits and vegetables, as well as you should not leave proteins, grains and dairy products out of their nutrition. There should always be a rainbow of colors on your kids’ plates food-wise, and this is what you should provide them with.

Your Kids’ Favorite Colors – Orange, Red and Green

A well-balanced diet should contain a lot of fruit, especially pomegranates. These are not only very delicious, but they are also rich in anti-oxidants. What this fruit does is it lowers blood pressure, and one of the greatest things in this regard is that your kid will surely like pomegranates, so you won’t have to negotiate with it about eating this fruit more often. When it comes to green, cabbage is rich in fiber, thus excellent for good digestion. Aside from this, green leafy vegetables are very beneficial for kids’ health, owing to the fact that they are an excellent source of calcium. As far as orange goes, pumpkins are said to contain a lot of magnesium.

Dairy Products Are Important Part of Your Kids’ Diet

If you want your kid to develop the way it should, you should include dairy products into its diet. However, they should drink milk that is low in fat, and if they have problems with digestion after consuming milk, try with yogurt. Namely, yogurt and low-fat cheese are much easier to digest than milk, and they are a valuable source of nutrients provided by dairy products, so you should keep them part of your kid’s diet.

In the Junk with the Junk Food

Fries, sodas, cheeseburgers, and all the other fast foods and unhealthy snacks should be cut out of your kid’s diet. No matter how healthy vegetables and fruits are, your child will never get to enjoy all the benefits these bring, if unhealthy foods remain part of its eating regime.

About the Author

Mike is a father of two, who loves blogging about parenting and child development. Over the last 4 years, Mike has written numerous articles and reviewed toys including educational, electronic, and girls toys.

Food Speak: Learning What Expiration Terms Really Mean

You head into the supermarket to buy some food for the family, and after surfing through the fresh fruit and vegetables, it’s time to make your way into the middle aisles. You grab a few goodies, hit the dairy section, followed by the meat and off you go.

When you get home you notice that there are many different dates on the different products, which is to be expected. But then you realize that they’re not all labeled with “use by” dates. In fact, most of the products say something different entirely. What’s the difference between expiration dates, sell-by dates, use-by dates and any number of other labels? Good question. Here’s a quick run-down of some of the most common labels and what they mean.

• Use by – The most common safety label, the “use by” date is typically found on dairy products and things that will spoil. If not “used by” this date the product is no longer guaranteed to taste and feel the way it was meant to.

• Sell by – This is a retailing label that is typically used by grocery stores to indicate when a product should be pulled from the shelf. It does not necessarily denote spoilage but rather gives the grocer a good idea as to when the product should come down.

• Best if used by – The word “best” is the key in this one. Basically it means that the product will taste and feel as it was meant to up until this date. This is a quality monitor, not a safety date.

• Guaranteed fresh until – Not unlike the “best if used by” label, this one also refers to quality and is typically used for baked goods like bread. Given the date it was made and the packaging, the retailer has a pretty good idea as to how long it will be fresh, hence the “guaranteed fresh until” date. After that date, the product will most likely begin to degrade or not taste as fresh as it could’ve a week ago.

These are the most common labels found on food products and hopefully they seem a little less intimidating now. However, you should still rely on your senses in times of doubt and the old tried and true sniff test still works wonders.

“Quinoa is an excellent source of protein, fiber, amino acids, iron and magnesium. No wonder the UN has declared 2013 the year of Quinoa! It is an especially good choice for vegetarians and vegans who need to up their protein intake; because it’s gluten-free, it can be eaten by people with wheat allergies or sensitivities.” (Cheryl Forberg, RD)

“Three cups of green tea a day can prevent breast cancer by as much as 50% because of its high EGCG antioxidant content.” Dr. Kristi Funk

Recycled Shipping Containers are Doing the World Good

Recycling is probably the most visible movement of our emerging green society, but one “recyclable” rapidly growing in popularity was staring us in the face for decades before we realized its potential. Most of us have seen the steel shipping containers that house merchandise and materials on ships and freight trains, but very likely never thought twice about them. And that was the problem.

Since the 1950s, when they came into widespread use, the worldwide population of these containers has grown to around 17 million, which would seem sufficient for decades of future needs. But many of them sit dormant, because it costs less to manufacture new ones than it does to retrieve used ones from often-distant locations.
These sturdy, weather and wear-resistant containers have a useful life of 15 years or more, and since they contain durable resources that could be put to far better use, which is precisely what far-sighted entrepreneurial folks are now doing.

Here are just a few of the startlingly logical and inventive ways in which steel shipping containers are finding useful second lives:

HOUSING

Residential

With the price of decent housing so far beyond the reach of so many people, reconfigured shipping containers present an affordable, viable alternative to homelessness.

Their steel structure is sturdy and weather-resistant, and they can easily be outfitted with plumbing and electricity, doors, windows, flooring and other amenities. A single container can serve as a small home, and additional units can be combined for larger single-family homes or even stacked to create modular apartment buildings.

Employee

Field business operations, such as mines and pipelines, pose the question of how and where to house on-site employees. Reconfigured shipping containers provide an easy and affordable answer.
As with residential use, employee shipping container housing provides portability, durability, expandability, comfort and numerous design options. They can also be utilized as on-site kitchens, dining rooms and conference rooms.

EDUCATION

Join together the imagination of small children and the possibilities of steel shipping containers and you have a perfect combination for a small preschool or nursery school.

Shipping container schools work because they have as much room to grow as young minds. There are hundreds of ways to design, redesign, transform and customize the spaces in ways that will keep young, inquiring minds fascinated and inspired.

RECREATION

Children can play for hours with an empty cardboard box, so imagine the fun they can have with a portable, mutable playground made with recycled shipping containers. They can be used individually for a myriad of activities or combined to create a central activity area or classroom. You might see them in public parks, used as covered eating areas, vending stands or even restrooms; their outside walls are even, on occasion, a canvas for aspiring muralists.

RETAIL

Recycled shipping containers are being used increasingly around the world as unique retail facilities, from small shops to multi-level shopping centers or malls. Lacking only elevators or escalators to differentiate them from traditional retail spaces, the construction savings of up to 80% certainly rises above those conveniences.
This movement is not restricted to low-budget needs, though. Such green-minded corporations as Starbuck’s and Puma have also opened outlets fashioned from shipping containers; rather than spending the time, money and resources for new construction.

CULTURE

Artists and sculptors are notable for the endlessly inventive ways they can find and shape their materials. It was only a matter of time before they discovered recycled shipping containers.

The containers have been stacked, twisted, painted and otherwise pressed into service as art for such public spaces as beaches and shopping centers. They also make excellent studios and traveling museums or exhibition spaces, allowing art to go directly to the people.

About the Author

Author Cherrell Tarantino is a freelance writer and advocate of environmental innovations, such as recycled or reclaimed portable storage containers. Whether this article has you thinking about containers for rent or purchase, you’ll find their many uses inspiring.

Lightly butter a 9×13-inch baking pan. In a medium pot, heat marshmallows, butter and cinnamon over medium-low heat, stirring often, until smooth, 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl with corn flakes and quickly and gently toss to coat (try not to crush too many of the flakes). Transfer to pan, spreading it out evenly and pressing down firmly. Set aside in a cool spot for 30 minutes.

Use a buttered, (3-inch) round cookie cutter to cut out cookies and transfer to a large plate. Break pretzels into pieces and firmly insert a curved piece into the top of each cookie to form a stem. Use chocolate and fruit to decorate cookies like jack-o-lanterns.